Oct. 16, 2014
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP
See more on Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLPSan Francisco Environmental/Land Use
"We have held true to the founding partners' original design: that the firm advise a mix of public interest clients, including environmental and community groups and public agencies," said Rachel B. Hooper, the firm's managing partner. "It has proved to be a magic formula."
Clem Shute, Marc Mihaly and Mark Weinberger started the firm at a time when environmental law was coming into being as a practice area. They had worked together at a new environmental unit created by then Attorney General Evelle Younger, but when his successor nixed the initiative, the three left to see if they could make a living doing environmental law in private practice.
Over the years, it has built up a long list of clients, including the University of California, the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Sierra Club, Committee for Green Foothills and Save the Bay. Shute remains a close adviser to the firm. Mihaly left in 2005 to become a professor at Vermont Law School and Weinberger died that same year after a long illness.
The firm is currently handling two cases pending at the state Supreme Court and, over the years, has been involved in major environmental and land use decisions, including the firm's first case-a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that protected city and county efforts to preserve open space. Agins v. Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255 (1980). It has helped draft multiple local government measures to rein in open space development and most recently has drafted two ordinances to ban fracking, in Santa Barbara and San Benito Counties, which are headed to voters this November.
Partner Richard S. Taylor said Shute Mihaly stands out because of its mission to do exceptional lawyering for our clients to protect the public interest, promote good government and good stewardship of the land .
The firm has built a business on representing many clients that lack resources, including environmental organizations and small community groups .
"The professional and intellectual challenge is figuring out how to achieve the results you want ... with minimal client expense," Taylor said.
Lawyers at the firm earn a decent, but not extravagant living, said Taylor.
And they don't go in for strategic plans, said partner Robert "Perl" Perlmutter.
"We focus on what's the work we want to do and what's going to be the most rewarding rather than what's going to be the most lucrative," Perlmutter said.
The firm, which has 28 lawyers, has kept its numbers steady in recent years. It has six associates as well as a fellowship program for new attorneys. Fellows work at the firm for three years and get intense training while not locking the firm into hiring more lawyers than it can support.
Lawyers are all paid based on seniority, not by the business they bring in. The firm offers sabbaticals, and when lawyers at traditional firms tell Perlmutter they would fear losing clients during a longer absence, "I have to laugh," he said.
"I'm not worried at all," Perlmutter said. "That's not how the firm's structured."
There's a spirit of collegiality at the firm that keeps morale high, Hooper said.
"To work on a supportive team reduces the stress of being a lawyer, and brings out the best in our attorneys," Hooper said. "People are more interested in results for our clients than in claiming credit for themselves."
- Fiona Smith
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